The Status of "Age of Nations"

It has been nearly nine months since it was announced that production on Age of Nations, Apolyton Civilization Site's (ACS) machinima-driven drama set in the Rise of Nations universe, had come to an instant halt following content usage rules coming into effect from the game's publisher Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). This message is not intended to rehash the specific reasons of the production shutdown or to resurrect discussions on redressing it. Rather, it's to update our small but still dedicated AoN audience on where we're at with completing the storyline, including resolving the number of arcs that we began and nutured throughout the series' first and only season and first featurette.

All voice actors not involved in the writing of AoN left the project last summer when they were informed of the stoppage shortly before it became public knowledge, if not before. The only individuals who have remained apart of the show's team have been myself, Illuminatus and DarkCloud. While AoN remains close in each and every one of our hearts, our time and energies have been almost exclusively directed into other matters on and off ACS. What had been written in script for second featurette had been set aside, and just recently a rough outline was shared by its writer. The third featurette has a handful of pages of script to its name but those are being considered for drastic re-writes (which had happened once previously). Commentaries on Episode 114 and the first featurette were recorded some months ago, but Episode 113 is still waiting for one for it. A number of contacts and in some cases preliminary scheduling was made to record it but has fallen through; the two outstanding commentaries have been kept in archive so that they can continue to be released in production and release order.

We cannot give even a general timeline of when either of the remainig featurette scripts will be released, but we are committed to finishing the story that we started. Speaking for myself at least, this has proven harder than originally thought not only because of other commitments but also having our momentum to resolve this series -- in the manner in which we had been telling it all along -- taken away from us without warning with little meaningful reason. On behalf of DarkCloud, Illuminatus and myself, we would love to hear from anyone and everyone who has been a casual or dedicated audience member of this series during or even after its 'formal' run to let us know just that. Our traffic logs indicate to us that series episodes and specials are still being downloaded, so we're certain that there are some people with a story of their own to tell in how they came to learn of Age of Nations and what they've thought of it.

Yes I would recommend getting it. Secondly, as you've realized, this forum is not very active. I recommend that you visit Rise of Nations Heaven, the only surviving active RoN community. RoNH has daily forum discussions, tons of downloadable scenarios and mods, and an active and friendly community base. If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or visit me on the RoNH forums (my username is Sargonthegreat).